Birth of a Regiment, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry 1914-1919

Abstract:

This thesis uses a web site as its primary format. Readers are invited to visit www.birthofaregiment.com.
Financed by a wealthy Montreal businessman, the original regiment was very British in its make-up. The Patricia’s were recruited and trained separate from the Canadian Expeditionary Force. For the first year of the war, they fought in a British brigade, under British officers using British weapons. By 1919, the PPCLI were distinctly Canadian. The Patricia’s became the best known Canadian regiment and one of three retained in the permanent force. This thesis examines that remarkable transition, the changes wrought by the war and the mechanisms used to reinforce the unique image of the Patricia’s. It also tests several myths embodied in the histories of the Regiment against a database of over five thousand files of soldiers who served with the Patricia’s during the First World War.